I’ve been accepted to both schools and I just cant seem to decide which ones will give me more opportunities.
Pros TAMU:
Top 40 CS program
Honors program (honors housing, priority registration, smaller honors classes, very good first year social activities, required research)
Opportunities to get closer to my professors for recommendations for internships and/or grad school
Less distractions because it’s in the middle of no where
Ability to pick any major within the school of engineering
Cons TAMU:
Not as ‘prestigious’ as UT
In the middle of no where, so there’s not much to do
Required thesis with honors program
More credit hours, it will take me an extra semester to graduate
Pros UT:
Great brand name, especially computer science
In the city close to tons of tech companies (so I could do internships in Austin using my full year apartment lease)
More recruited than A&M for computer science
The city will give endless opportunities for fun
They have a degree plan with MUCH more flexibility. I will be able to double minor in business and cyber security!
Cons UT
Very strict on major changes
Lots of distractions because in Austin
No honors
Big classes, and I’ve heard rumors of the computer science classes filling up too quickly.
Part of me is saying go for the highest ranked school, UT, and deal with big class sizes and other cons, but the other half of me is saying that the opportunities from engineering honors are great and may be enough to sway me from burnt orange to maroon.
Just to give some background, I think I could fit in at either one. I don’t really have many emotional tug toward either school at the moment.
I really just want some options of attending UT vs A&M engineering honors and how being a part of a honors college would impact my ‘college experience,’ both educationally and socially.
@ucbalumnus UT requires a 2.75 after a year in order to become a full-time CS student and TAMU requires a 3.5 after the first year to be able to pick any major in engineering you’d like (and 3.5 is the minimum to stay in honors). A 3.2 after the first year is the average CS acceptance non-3.5 GPA.
Are you thinking you may want to switch from CS to Engineering? If that's not a serious consideration, then drop it as one of the con's for UT.
Honestly, your pro’s for TA&M are a bit thin. What tangible benefits will honors provide that overrule the clear benefits that UT provides (Austin >> College Station, highly reputed CS department, graduate one semester faster than TA&M). Unless you have a clear idea of what tangible benefits TAMU honors provides, and they are substantial, then go with UT (which it sounds like you’re leaning to anyway).
@insanedreamer I’m at a 70/30 split between computer science and engineering. Having flexibility to chose (I’m capable of getting a 3.5) which major I’d like is nice. Also, they spend the first year having you take seminar classes that help you decide on which major is right for you.
Priority registration is a huge one, and I think that being in engineering honors housing would be a nice addition as well.
Thank y’all for the advice! I guess I never thought of a 3.5 since I’ve made all As in my 10+ dual credit (community college classes), but I guess those entry level courses won’t compare to a top university’s curriculum.
I was leaning toward UT, but I thought in my mind that a top 40 CS school + honors would be equatable to a top 10 school. Not sure how true my theory is, but I feel like I’d regret not going to UT Austin. Plus, the stress of trying to maintain a 3.5 wouldn’t be fun, and almost all the pros of A&M would go away if I were to get the boot from honors.
This is very true. In CS or Eng, maintaining a 3.5 can be difficult depending on the course and professor. My nephew was a straight-A student in high school, almost effortless, won all kinds of merit scholarships, and then went to TAMU for engineering and had a rude awakening when he discovered it was a lot harder than he though it was going to be.
Very true about the grade deflation and difficulty in the engineering disciplines. CS is a tight major to fit into 4 years, you will be stressed, and then you have the other classes required which also factor into GPA.
Austin is a much better hiring environment for internships than College Station, and that is another factor in UT’s favor.
Hey, i am sorry to deviate from the topic, i got admit form tamu college station and umd college park for computer engineering. I am planning to go to tamu, but I am quite apprehensive about the internship opportunities. Please state your views. Once again I apologize for deviating.
That’s okay. You can’t delete it, but just open your thread in the “College admissions” forum.Asking your own question in someone else’s thread is called “hijacking” and is considered very rude, not to mention, since the thread’s title isn’t yours, you wouldn’t necessarily get answers…
Kids from our HS, top 3 public in Texas, go to both UT and TAMU for engineering and CS. They are top of their class and I hear that freshman classes generally really challenge them and a 3.5 is hard to get. That is why the saying goes “B’s and C’s lead to degrees”… As for CS, UT Austin is the place to be IMHO. Hook’em!